Cats Getting Minds Right on Cusp of Postseason

That didn’t stop him from issuing some harsh self-critique following Kentucky’s regular-season finale.

“I didn’t have any kind of energy or none of that,” Monk said. “Basically, yeah, I was not engaged. But young players, every player has up-and-down games, so I just gotta move from that, learn from the mistakes and try to get better.”

For the first time all season, Monk was held to single digits in scoring at Texas A&M. He managed only six points as UK (26-5) took down the Aggies, a prospect that might strike fear in the hearts of opponents in the upcoming SEC Tournament. For a scorer who averages 21.2 points per game, things tend to even out. 

That’s not why Monk believes other teams playing in Nashville this week should worry though.

“It’s bad news for every team coming up because I think our team is focused,” Monk said. “We’re all focused and we’re coming in focused from the jump. I think it’s going to be a new team the whole tournament.”

The postseason path for the Wildcats will begin on Friday at 1 p.m. Top-seeded UK is awaiting the winner of No. 8 Georgia (18-13) and No. 9 Tennessee (16-15). The Cats played both teams twice, sweeping the Bulldogs in a pair of tight games and splitting with the Volunteers.

“Both Georgia’s games, the one I didn’t play in and the one I played, were both close,” De’Aaron Fox said. “Tennessee, they beat us up there and came here and we blew them out. But, it doesn’t matter who we play. We just are going to be ready for whoever wins that game.” 

The Big Blue Nation, of course, will be ready as well. The freshmen might never have seen UK fans take over Bridgestone Arena before, but they’ve heard about it from teammates who have.

“They talked about it, but I’ve seen it on TV watching it,” Fox said. “It’s always a lot of blue there.”

“They said it’s just like Rupp when we play,” Bam Adebayo said. “We’re just going to go out there and have fun and compete.”

John Calipari typically doesn’t share quite the same enthusiasm for conference tournament play, but he certainly seems fired up this week. He talked both on his radio show and the SEC Coaches’ Teleconference about being in a “great frame of mind” as the postseason begins, even talking about another fabled “tweak” to best position his team for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m loving the fact that this team has learned to fight, that they stuck together when things looked bleak and they just kept going, had a will to win and all that stuff,” Coach Cal said on the teleconference. “But we’re still, there’s something that’s not quite right that we have a few days to try to fix.”

The players, though UK took a couple days off after the regular-season ended, can sense the excitement in their coach. They also see the same potential in themselves that he sees in them.

“I mean, (Calipari has) been through this a lot and he keeps saying sometimes we still don’t know who we are yet, even this far in the season,” Fox said. “We’re still young. We’re still figuring out who we are and we’re just trying to keep getting better. And once we figure out who we are, I think that’s when we’re going to be able to peak as a team.” 

The Cats aren’t even sure what their peak looks like, but they’re doing everything they can to reach it.

“I’m not sure how good we can be,” Fox said. “I mean, we know we can be great, so we’re just trying to practice and keep getting better.”